HARVESTING AND MARKETING 163 



to purchase. There are very few city families who 

 find it convenient or economical to buy a barrel at one 

 time. The quantity is more than the family will con- 

 sume without waste, and there is no place in the 

 house where there is room for the barrel to stand. A 

 bushel of apples, however, is not too much for the 

 smallest family, and a neat square box can be easily 

 stowed even in a New York city flat. 



Experience has demonstrated that the use of the 

 apple box will be extended. This does not mean, 

 however, that it will supplant the apple barrel. It 

 certainly will not do so, at least for many years to 

 come. The apple box must be used only for fancy 

 grades of fruit. This is not so much because the pack- 

 age costs more as because the expense of selling it is 

 somewhat greater and because the person buying a 

 package of this kind expects it to contain something 

 good. If the purchaser buys a box of apples and finds 

 the fruit inferior, his resentment is much greater than 

 if he has been cheated on a barrel of apples. Most 

 purchasers have grown accustomed to being more or 

 less swindled on apples in barrels. 



A great many different boxes have been proposed. 

 These have been of different sizes, different forms, 

 and differently constructed. We seem to be settling 

 down rather rapidly, however, to a bushel box of 

 standard size and construction. This box, which is 

 now the most common, has the following inside di- 

 mensions: 10x11x20 inches. This gives a capacity of 

 2,200 cubic inches. A standard bushel contains 

 2,150.42 cubic inches, so that the box furnishes a little 

 over the standard struck bushel (not a heaping 

 bushel). 



These boxes are made with the ends of 



